Rafe Zetter
Banned
3D ingame effects... for the curious - New information added
If you have a 3d Tv but not yet tried E : D yet and are curious read the wall of txt below
I've been lucky enough to purchase yesterday the very latest Sony Bravia smart tv (KDL50w8 50 being inches) with built in ACTIVE 3d. I'm also using Nvidia's 3DTV play software designed to signal to a TV (at a cost of £27).
I can say for control purposes, I've tried 9 games before elite, to see how they reacted, including several who have 3d capability already built in, most of which gave good results.
Heavy edit:
I fixed the problem... or at least finally figured out what was going on. In order to get proper 3d effect on all items in the cockpit both near and far the 3d separation slider needs to be fine tuned, and I mean fine, but once done - game options set to; 3d side by side, tv set to side by side; 1920 x 1080 @ 60hz... well....
oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god ad almost infinitium.
I sat here rapt; for close to an hour just looking at the cockpit and Azeban City nearby moving the headlook around. I shed a tear. I'm not kidding, really. I've never done that for any game ever, and I've seen game graphics go from the white square blob of pong (look it up) to what we have now and I've never had this reaction before.
WOW just doesn't do it.
The 3d gaming promise has been fulfilled. In spades.
It's not perfect, a few hazy graphics / ghosting / jaggies here and there but 95%; text is in focus, the pilotseat control pad / keyboard graphics are in focus now (instead of horrible ghosting and misaligned). The pilot arms actually look realistic, almost all of my issues (kept below for archive so you know what I'm going on about) resolved. (the milky way is still stuck on the end of the nose though).
If you have been like me; waiting on the fence about buying into 3d as I have been for several years, awaiting the promise of when it's a viable properly working reality; that day is now.
Elite Dangerous 3d effect WORKS, but with this caveat:
My TV is ACTIVE, meaning you get the full 1920x1080 resolution - passive only gives half that as it does the 3d effect by writing only half the resolution per eye, which IMHO will detract again from this which is already suffering a little from the 3d effect; namely the poor anti-aliasing making jaggies on the edges much more pronounced, and text in particular suffers.
If you think you can live with that (for now - it could be improved by Frontier later in their bid to make E : D OcRift compatible) take the leap. You won't regret it.
I know 3d is available for consoles and such, but I've seen that and it seems... remote by comparison; the screen and action are further away, the 3d effect diluted. With E : D the pilots eye view is amazing.
I might be overselling it a little, but I'm from a generation that has had the promise of 3d gaming and virtual reality experience for nigh on 30 years, so I'm allowed to wax lyrical a little.
Original post:
I have tried it in both 1920x1080 @ 24hz and 1280x720 @ 60hz.
I know the 3d is "experimental" but I'm sorry to report that currently it's almost unusable, mainly due to the horrific ghosting on both the left and right side of every 3d object in the cockpit.
Every part of the hud ghosts, it really messes with your eyes.
The hud sections work in as much as they are properly in 3d effect which is very nice, the scanner icon stalks look especially cool, and the side / front panels are also good 3d effect, but with the horrible ghosting (crosstalk I think it's called) on BOTH the left and right side of every artifact, the end result is headache inducing.
Edit: I did notice inside azaban city when docked the hud panel ghosting effect was reduced, enough so it wasn't offputting, but it was still visible. The ship main body in the outfitting section was ok(ish) but the lasers, most of the detail was just a blur of shapes and colours.
The smaller ship (right side) and target (left side) "holograms" also "shimmer" quite badly, if you can imagine a visible image rendition of what you might get from a badly tuned radio station with static, that's how they look. (which it occurs to me could be intentional... but I'd think by then they would have pretty good holo projectors.
The cockpit windshield effect is spectacular - however what's behind it is... odd.
The nebulas are flat, they look "stuck on" as they are separate from the main star field, but the flat effect looks terrible. Worse still the flat "level" where the nebulas are intersects with the nose of the ship
If you have ever seen those cheesy wall pictures where they have added detail painted onto clear plastic, which is then raised above the main picture to give a "3d" effect, that's how the nebulas look. As if somehow you were looking at 3 panes of glass with the main star field flat at the back, the nebulas in the middle, and the rest in front.
To be honest I think the nebulas would be better NOT rendered in 3d - or done differently somehow, because in reality they would be light years away, so flat at the back of the render joined to the main star field would not look out of place, rather than a cloud of stuff attached to the nose of the ship.
Azaban city is a mess of lines and garbled renders, @ 20km. It's all there, but with ghosting and such it's a mess. At 5km it's PAINFUL to look at, like needles to the eyes, it's almost impossible to pick out specific detail and buildings etc. So much detail is lost, trying to land I almost hit the toast rack, and I was going very slowly
I know currently there prolly aren't that many with 3d tv's or monitors yet, but they are becoming more and more common, with more games being made with 3d in mind; so those games optimised for it will benefit greatly IMHO. I think personally more dev time should be spent on the 3d and less on 4K, because right now 4k costs an obscene amount of money, and will require the MOST powerful PC parts on the market. It will be years before 4k becomes the norm; whereas a 26" 3d monitor costs just £250 for a good one and they can be had for less than that.
I played Bioshock Infinite today for several hours (and my eye's weren't even tired after - no strain / headache or nausea), the 3D effect is almost,almost perfect, there's a small amount of crosstalk on objects as they fade into distance, but up close and 10ft away, it's extremely good, and it wasn't even designed that way specifically - it's not classed as a "3d ready" game, only an "excellent" compatible.
I would be interested to know the setup Frontier are using to assess the 3d effect other than for the OcRift.
If you managed to get this game as good as what's done in Bioshock infinite, I'd say you have a game worth dropping £500+ for 3d to play NOW (or buying the game if you already have 3d capability) instead of in however long until OcRift launches.
I was so so desperate for the 3d to work well, which is why I left it until last. I know it's not the main event of the game, but right now, it's too bad to use for any period of time.
addendum: It's just occurred to me I've not checked Star Citizen 's 3d effect yet. that may have a lot of bearing on this - so I'll check that tommorrow and report, for comparison.
If you have a 3d Tv but not yet tried E : D yet and are curious read the wall of txt below
I've been lucky enough to purchase yesterday the very latest Sony Bravia smart tv (KDL50w8 50 being inches
) with built in ACTIVE 3d. I'm also using Nvidia's 3DTV play software designed to signal to a TV (at a cost of £27).I can say for control purposes, I've tried 9 games before elite, to see how they reacted, including several who have 3d capability already built in, most of which gave good results.
Heavy edit:
I fixed the problem... or at least finally figured out what was going on. In order to get proper 3d effect on all items in the cockpit both near and far the 3d separation slider needs to be fine tuned, and I mean fine, but once done - game options set to; 3d side by side, tv set to side by side; 1920 x 1080 @ 60hz... well....
oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god ad almost infinitium.
I sat here rapt; for close to an hour just looking at the cockpit and Azeban City nearby moving the headlook around. I shed a tear. I'm not kidding, really. I've never done that for any game ever, and I've seen game graphics go from the white square blob of pong (look it up) to what we have now and I've never had this reaction before.
WOW just doesn't do it.
The 3d gaming promise has been fulfilled. In spades.
It's not perfect, a few hazy graphics / ghosting / jaggies here and there but 95%; text is in focus, the pilotseat control pad / keyboard graphics are in focus now (instead of horrible ghosting and misaligned). The pilot arms actually look realistic, almost all of my issues (kept below for archive so you know what I'm going on about) resolved. (the milky way is still stuck on the end of the nose though).
If you have been like me; waiting on the fence about buying into 3d as I have been for several years, awaiting the promise of when it's a viable properly working reality; that day is now.
Elite Dangerous 3d effect WORKS, but with this caveat:
My TV is ACTIVE, meaning you get the full 1920x1080 resolution - passive only gives half that as it does the 3d effect by writing only half the resolution per eye, which IMHO will detract again from this which is already suffering a little from the 3d effect; namely the poor anti-aliasing making jaggies on the edges much more pronounced, and text in particular suffers.
If you think you can live with that (for now - it could be improved by Frontier later in their bid to make E : D OcRift compatible) take the leap. You won't regret it.
I know 3d is available for consoles and such, but I've seen that and it seems... remote by comparison; the screen and action are further away, the 3d effect diluted. With E : D the pilots eye view is amazing.
I might be overselling it a little, but I'm from a generation that has had the promise of 3d gaming and virtual reality experience for nigh on 30 years, so I'm allowed to wax lyrical a little
.Original post:
I have tried it in both 1920x1080 @ 24hz and 1280x720 @ 60hz.
I know the 3d is "experimental" but I'm sorry to report that currently it's almost unusable, mainly due to the horrific ghosting on both the left and right side of every 3d object in the cockpit.
Every part of the hud ghosts, it really messes with your eyes.
The hud sections work in as much as they are properly in 3d effect which is very nice, the scanner icon stalks look especially cool, and the side / front panels are also good 3d effect, but with the horrible ghosting (crosstalk I think it's called) on BOTH the left and right side of every artifact, the end result is headache inducing.
Edit: I did notice inside azaban city when docked the hud panel ghosting effect was reduced, enough so it wasn't offputting, but it was still visible. The ship main body in the outfitting section was ok(ish) but the lasers, most of the detail was just a blur of shapes and colours.
The smaller ship (right side) and target (left side) "holograms" also "shimmer" quite badly, if you can imagine a visible image rendition of what you might get from a badly tuned radio station with static, that's how they look. (which it occurs to me could be intentional... but I'd think by then they would have pretty good holo projectors.
The cockpit windshield effect is spectacular - however what's behind it is... odd.
The nebulas are flat, they look "stuck on" as they are separate from the main star field, but the flat effect looks terrible. Worse still the flat "level" where the nebulas are intersects with the nose of the ship
If you have ever seen those cheesy wall pictures where they have added detail painted onto clear plastic, which is then raised above the main picture to give a "3d" effect, that's how the nebulas look. As if somehow you were looking at 3 panes of glass with the main star field flat at the back, the nebulas in the middle, and the rest in front.
To be honest I think the nebulas would be better NOT rendered in 3d - or done differently somehow, because in reality they would be light years away, so flat at the back of the render joined to the main star field would not look out of place, rather than a cloud of stuff attached to the nose of the ship.
Azaban city is a mess of lines and garbled renders, @ 20km. It's all there, but with ghosting and such it's a mess. At 5km it's PAINFUL to look at, like needles to the eyes, it's almost impossible to pick out specific detail and buildings etc. So much detail is lost, trying to land I almost hit the toast rack, and I was going very slowly
I know currently there prolly aren't that many with 3d tv's or monitors yet, but they are becoming more and more common, with more games being made with 3d in mind; so those games optimised for it will benefit greatly IMHO. I think personally more dev time should be spent on the 3d and less on 4K, because right now 4k costs an obscene amount of money, and will require the MOST powerful PC parts on the market. It will be years before 4k becomes the norm; whereas a 26" 3d monitor costs just £250 for a good one and they can be had for less than that.
I played Bioshock Infinite today for several hours (and my eye's weren't even tired after - no strain / headache or nausea), the 3D effect is almost,almost perfect, there's a small amount of crosstalk on objects as they fade into distance, but up close and 10ft away, it's extremely good, and it wasn't even designed that way specifically - it's not classed as a "3d ready" game, only an "excellent" compatible.
I would be interested to know the setup Frontier are using to assess the 3d effect other than for the OcRift.
If you managed to get this game as good as what's done in Bioshock infinite, I'd say you have a game worth dropping £500+ for 3d to play NOW (or buying the game if you already have 3d capability) instead of in however long until OcRift launches.
I was so so desperate for the 3d to work well, which is why I left it until last. I know it's not the main event of the game, but right now, it's too bad to use for any period of time.
addendum: It's just occurred to me I've not checked Star Citizen 's 3d effect yet. that may have a lot of bearing on this - so I'll check that tommorrow and report, for comparison.
Last edited:
